KINGSTON Mayor Desmond McKenzie says the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) is seeking legal advice to see what measures can be taken to stop Caribbean Broilers (CB) from allegedly dumping chicken waste that results in the blockage of sewer mains on North Street and several other sections of downtown Kingston.

In the meantime, McKenzie has invited Caribbean Broilers, the National Water Commission (NWC), the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) and residents of the affected areas on North Street to a meeting today at 11:00 am to discuss the matter.

The angry residents have been demonstrating about the sewerage overflow into their premises.

“It’s a public health matter so it becomes a relevant KSAC matter.

“We are looking at the regulations and I am to get the findings from a lawyer later today or early tomorrow,” the mayor said on Tuesday.

“We are going to serve all the notices we can. We are going to throw everything at them,” McKenzie said at a press briefing after the council meeting.

McKenzie claimed that the blocked sewer mains had caused sewerage to overflow into premises on North Street in the area of James St, Text Street and Lissant Street. He said that residents in Tivoli Gardens, Denham Town, Jones Town and Rema had also been affected.

“There are times when the entire sewerage line on North Street – including the Kingston Public Hospital and running as far back as Spanish Town Road – has pure bloody water and chicken feathers and parts coming out of it,” McKenzie said.

He said that the problem, which had been ongoing for more than a year, had worsened.

In a press release of November 10, the National Water Commission (NWC) said that blocked and overflowing sewers on North Street were caused by the “illegal and improper discharge of offensive material in the sewerage network”.

The NWC said that its Waste Water Department had “repeatedly objected to the inappropriate discharges from Caribbean Broilers, which often result in overflowing sewers. Despite many attempts to work with the offending company, the problem has continued to resurface from time to time.”

However, Dr Keith Amiel, Caribbean Broilers corporate manager, told the Observer that a tour of the factory on Arnold Road on Tuesday morning by six NWC engineers and six engineers from the NSWMA should have discounted allegations that chicken heads and feet and feathers were being let out into the effluent disposal system.

He said that since the company began operating from Arnold Road in the 1980s, there have been minimal problems.

“This morning [Tuesday] they were shown various filters and strainers that separate waste from solid matter. The solid is centrifugal and goes by conveyor into an overhead container and trucks reverse and load this stuff,” Amiel said.

He said that trucks take eight to twelve loads of chicken waste daily to the Riverton City dump.

“Only the water goes into the sewerage system,” he said.

Amiel, who pointed out that CB was not the only factory or business place in the area, attributed the overflow to sand, silt and stones, which he said the NWC was now digging out.

“Caribbean Broilers is not the only factory in the area. Water is coming up because the capacity of the pipes have been compromised. The NWC has to dig out the sand, silt and stones to re-establish the integrity of the system and improve its capacity to take off the effluent in the area,” Amiel noted.

He said that the NWC currently had three teams of workers cleaning drains stretching from Vineyard Town along North Street and past the May Pen Cemetery on Spanish Town Road.

Yesterday, Amiel said that the real cause of the blockage of the sewerage system was asphalt. He said that on Tuesday night between 9:00 and 12:00 pm, he saw the NWC removing asphalt from the effluent disposal system between the Banana Board building in Kingston Gardens and the Ministry of Labour, North Street.

“Some people had paved the road. The manholes were open and they just put on the asphalt and rolled it, and this is what is causing a total blockage. Because the water couldn’t go west it turned east and came up further out on North Street,” Amiel added.

However, Charles Buchanan, public relations manager at the NWC, told the Observer on Tuesday that NWC was standing by its release of November 10 in which it had objected to what it termed the “inappropriate discharges from Caribbean Broilers, which often result in overflowing sewers”.

Added Buchanan: “We have since the November 10 release continued to have dialogue with Caribbean Broilers at the same time that our work crews have been working to have the chokes cleared.”